It is known for such cellular material strips to be employed as sealing strips for gaps, in particular when motor vehicle body portions are enamelled. These are normally of cylindrical construction, i.e. their cross-sectional surface area is circular or elliptical. However, with this profile section it has proved to be disadvantageous that the requisite adhesion surfaces, when the profile section is insertingly fitted for sealing the gap, are no longer available in the form of adhesion surface areas to their full cross-sectional extent for, in the case of a cylindrical round profile section, when a self-detaching adhesive is used, those adhesion surface area which are provided as adhesion surface areas, are reduced to such an extent that the full adhesion surface area is no longer available, which is caused by the cylindrically round profile section.
It has to be considered, furthermore, that ultimately, for the sealing of the gap, the cellular material section has to be pressed into the gap in order that the closure of the gap be achieved. However, since a cellular material section which is subjected to pressure endeavors to return to its original configuration, i.e. to reassume its initial shape, this leads to the circumstance that no plane surface area provided with adhesive area comes to bear against the body portion concerned which is adequate for a secure fixation of the strip.
Over and above that, after having been pressed into the gap, the round section fails to adapt ideally to all gap widths.
That is why the technical problem of the present invention is to provide a cellular material strip of the type stated in the foregoing not merely for the sealing of gaps between body and doors or hatchbacks or the like of vehicles, but also for so-called further or additional enamellings of vehicle body portions, which, with a simple construction, ensures as good a utilization as possible of the applied adhesive coat. In addition, the technical problem is to provide an applicator, with the aid of which cellular material strips can be effortlessly fitted into the gap, more particularly into a gap between two body portions of a motor vehicle.